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The claim that an entity has the ability to use funds to influence public policy?

• astrange 3y ago
  That they spend billions on it. But yes, that too, because even when they try it doesn't work. Here's today's election results in SC where the billionaire-backed* candidate got 1.4%. https://x.com/armanddoma/status/1753947901972418952 https://x.com/armanddoma/status/1753947901972418952 * morally, not financially, since you can't really do that unlike what people think
  • willsmith72 3y ago
    it's not a secret that mega companies use huge amount of funds on lobbying to influence politics e.g. amazon in 2023, 19.8m USD https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-spenders https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-spenders it's not like america is alone in this, they just have gigantic dollar figures. australia is a country which really struggles to move away from fossil fuels, and it also has gigantic coal-mining companies paying huge amounts to keep it that way https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-16797862 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-16797862 https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/23/apple-ramped-up-lobbying-spending-in-2022-outpacing-tech-peers.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/23/apple-ramped-up-lobbying-spe... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/09/big-meat-dairy-lobbyists-turn-out-record-numbers-cop28 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/09/big-meat...
    • astrange 3y ago
      > it's not a secret that mega companies use huge amount of funds on lobbying to influence politics Companies also spend billions on marketing. But there's no reason to believe either of these things actually /work/. And lobbying is not giving money to politicians.